Dodgers Prove Their Ineptness In 7-5 Loss

For some of the regular visitors to Veterans Stadium the last two years, it may be surprising to learn that the Phillies are not the worst defensive team in the National League.

Nope - and not by a long shot. That dubious honor goes to none other than the Los Angeles Dodgers. And the 24,189 at the Vet last night who witnessed the Dodgers' come-from-ahead 7-5 loss to the Phils saw the proof in the pudding.

Coming into last night's contest, the Phils were tied with the Cards and Giants with 36 errors. But that trio was six boots behind manager Tommy Lasorda's troops, and as Tommy looked on in horror, the Dodgers out-erred the Phils 3-1 to stretch their lead.

Analyzing the Phils' second straight victory over L.A. from a positive standpoint, one should take note of the following: Von Hayes stroked the game- winner, a towering two-run home run to right in the sixth inning off ace reliever Tom Niedenfuer (the blow kept Hayes' hitting streak alive at 13 straight games); Glenn Wilson smashed a clutch bases-loaded triple into the right-field corner off laboring starter Orel Hershiser in thefifth, and rookie lefty Don Carman picked up his first save of the season (and the second of his career) with three hitless innings in relief of John Denny and Larry Andersen.

And those are precisely the kind of "in the pinch" performances the Phils need in the coming weeks and months if they are to turn around their woeful start.

But it must also be pointed out that, were it not for rookie shortstop Marian Duncan's boot of Jeff Stone's leadoff grounder, Wilson never would've had the opportunity to deliver his big blow in the fifth. Hershiser struck out Hayes and got Mike Schmidt on a fly to center and should've breezed through the inning 1-2-3.

But Tim Corcoran slapped a two-out single off Duncan's glove to keep things going. (In all honesty, Corky should've been out, too, because Duncan fell for Stone's bluff of a steal attempt and broke toward second. He was thus out of position when Corcoran hit the ball and could not recover in time.)

Hershiser, who was wild as a March hare from the start, walked Ozzie Virgil to load the sacksand quickly fell behind Wilson. 'Willie" made him pay dearly, slamming a screamer past first baseman Greg Brock and into the corner to tie the game at 4.

Luis Aguayo greeted Niedenfuer with a double to the gap in right-center to score Wilson and give the Phils a 5-4 lead. All four runs in the inning were unearned.

'It felt good," said Phils skipper John Felske with a grin when asked how it felt to be scoring the unearned runs rather than giving them up.

'But the big thing as far as I'm concerned is that we finally got some timely hitting. Wilson's triple was just the thing we've needed so badly lately, and Von's been great all along. To me it was important that, after scoring a bunch of runs the night before, we came right back and hit the ball hard the next day after falling behind.

"And Carman was outstanding. He had a great cut fastball, it was really moving. We hadn't planned on him going so long, but he was doing a great job getting their lefthanded hitters out. But I will say this: there were a couple instances where, if they'd have gotten a man on and come with some (righthanded) pinch hitters, (Kent) Tekulve would've come in."

Anyway, the Dodgers tied the game against Denny in the top of the sixth when Duncan walked, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Steve Sax's grounder to short. Felske yanked Denny and brought on Andersen when Ken Landreaux followed with a double off the right-field wall. Andy put out the fire by retiring Pedro Guerrero on a grounder to second.

Hayes made Niedenfuer (1-2) a very unfortunate loser and Andersen (also 1-2) a very fortunate winner, smacking his third dinger of the year after Stone led off the sixth with a walk.

There was considerable irony in this. First, consider that Niedenfuer registered seven outs in his 2 1/3 innings - every one of them a strikeout. That matched a career high he'd set against the Reds May 11, 1983. But we'll bet the ranch he did it that time in more than 2 1/3 innings. (For the record, the Phils, who must lead the universe in strikeouts, fanned 13 times against Hershiser, Niedenfuer and Steve Howe. It was their third 13-strikeout performance in two weeks.)

Andersen, on the other hand, got his 'W" for throwing to only two batters; Felske brought on Carman as soon as Mike Marshall led off the seventh with an infield single.

"He's been getting me out a lot, actually, the last couple years," Hayes said after his blast off Niedenfuer. 'He'd always seem to get ahead of me and then jam me with his real good cutter (cut fastball). But he got that one out over the plate and I hit it good.

"The ball wasn't carrying well at all tonight, it was bringing anything hit to right back into the park. So I knew that if I was going to hit one out that way I'd have to hit it awfully well."